At the core, I'm fascinated by what it means to be human, and I try to study that in as many ways as I can: philosophy, science, art, mathematics, religion, myth, history, politics, and whatever else looks interesting. Along the way, I hope to tell a few good jokes and stories, do a few good deeds, make a few good things, and love a few good people.

About Me

I am the original Speaker to Managers, having earned the title working for Tektronix, Inc. in the 1980's and '90s. Accept no substitutes. I also worked for GemStone Systems, and am a member in good standing of the ex-GemStone Association.

I'm recently retired, and spending my time trying to decide how to spend my time. It will probably turn out to be some mix of photography, making mathematical art, and writing science fiction. Previously I was a professional software engineer, amateur photographer, and occasional poet and artist. I've been a soldier, a peace-marcher, an assembly-line worker, a video studio technician, and an apprentice integrated circuit designer. I've worked in a medical school, a large electronics company, and several high-tech startups. I've raised dogs and children (no success at all with tropical fish). I've never been a short order cook, but I was a lunch counter attendant for a day. I'm politically Left, technically Object-Oriented, religiously idiosyncratic, and geographically Left Coast. I know where the bodies are buried.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

As of last Saturday, the Ides of December, we have no more marriageable children in our family. Our youngest son Jeremy married Debbie, his friend and housemate for the last 9 or 10 years now. It was a great wedding; it worked well because Jeremy and Debbie made all the decisions about how the wedding would be organized, chose the decor and hired the photographer and the caterer. And they chose, instead of a cake, to have cupcakes made by a local specialty bakery called Saint Cupcake. They were delicious, and didn't require a major effort to cut, either. Oh, and Jeremy wanted the primary wedding party to be dressed formally, so he and I and Debbie's father Gene wore tuxedos. First time for me; I never went to the Senior Prom. At this rate I will probably get to wear a tux again when we take a cruise to Titan and the Rings.

Because of the wedding, we put up a lot of relatives from out of town for the wedding. As I write, all but our older son Alex and his wife Melissa have gone back home, but they're staying on for a few days. This worked out well for them, although Melissa had to stay up late last night to finish grading her Design of Psychology Experiments class remotely so the seniors could find out whether they get to graduate. Since her TA is about to flunk out as well, there was a certain amount of drama in the grading.

It's nice to have Alex and Melissa here; it's the first time they've been back in Portland in almost three years. In fact, it's the first time that any of the relatives except our children have seen our new (inhabited three and a half years now) house. The good news is that all the remodeling and most of the painting was done by the week before the wedding, so there was room for people to sleep and no paint cans to trip over.